New Report Shows That Amongst Top Tier Managers In Australian Organisations, Men are Paid $100,000 More Than Women

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A new report released on Thursday has illustrated that amongst top tier managers in Australian organisations, men are paid, on average, $100,000 more than women per year.

‘Gender Equity Insights 2016: Inside Australia’s Gender Pay Gap’, a collaboration between Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre and the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA), for the first time also revealed a measurable link between increased gender diversity on governing boards and lower pay gaps for managers.

One of the key findings found in the report was that female Key Management Personnel (KMP) working full-time earn, on average, $100,000 a year less than male KMPs on total remuneration, with women earning, on average, $244,569 and men earning $343,269.

“Large and persistent gender pay gaps amongst managers suggest behaviours at senior levels of Australian organisations that result in preferential recruitment and wage treatment of men over women,” she said.

Cassells said that this is evidenced by the finding that men earn proportionately more in additional remuneration than women “in the form of bonuses and other discretionary pay”, leading to an average male ‘bonus’ premium of almost eight percentage points for full-time workers.

According to the report, if women and men move through managerial positions at the same pace, working full-time and reaching a KMP role in their tenth year, men can expect to earn $2.3 million and women $1.7 million in base salary over the period.

That’s a $600,000 difference.

Surprisingly, managerial gender pay gaps were found to be smaller in male-dominated industries than female-dominated industries.

The findings of the report demonstrated that increasing the share of women on boards from zero to 50:50 is associated with a 6.3 percentage point reduction in the gender pay gap for full-time managers.